It looks like the will of the people isn’t going to be considered.
I think if they crack down on legal weed, it’s going to turn a lot of their supporters against them. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but the Trump supporters I know tend toward states rights and fewer laws. I think it would go badly for them.
Ok, I was going to say it; but Ehrlichman, the Nixon man, said it better:
When Jefferson Beauregard “Jeff” Sessions claims that he is no racist now (and Trump) they can plausibly do it because they know that the War on drugs will continue and continue to disrupt more the minority communities and the ones opposed to Trump and him.
Besides that for the same crimes minorities are more likely to be sent to prison than white people, a lot of the crime that drug prohibition causes does affect the poor and minorities more. All under the pretext that the new administration will be doing “good”, but sadly many still swallow their big lies.
Others that did say it better: The guys at Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell:
A scare piece long on opinion and short on substance.
We’ll see.
*There used to be tons of gold and green
Comin’ up here from Mexico
A donde esta la planta, mi amigo, del sol?
But Mexico is under the thumb of a man called Richard
And he’s come to call himself king
But he’s a small-headed man
And he doesn’t know a thing
About how to deal for you*
I don’t think marijuana is a priority for Trump. He’s said many times in the past that he approves of medical marijuana and believes that states should set their own policy for recreational use. True, there are those in his cabinet who think differently. We’ll just have to see who’s driving this bus (and with Trump’s ego I suspect he won’t let anyone else near the driver’s seat.)
Moved from Elections to Great Debates.
[/ moderating]
(Link is to a live perf of a pretty-much forgotten song from the waning days of the Jefferson Airplane. Worth watching because a) it’s a great song; b) it’s a commentary on the outset of Tricky Dick’s drug war; c) Jorma does a noble job on lead guitar; d) Jack starts everything off by igniting a big fat joint; e) Grace is a very pretty young hippie lady.)
This really isn’t true. When there’s an issue where states’ rights work in their favor - say states that enact laws that target homosexuals or restrict abortions - then they’re all for states’ rights. But if there’s a states’ rights issue that goes against their agenda then they’re all for the federal government coming in and stomping all over it.
“States’ rights” is a convenient philosophical cover for their agenda when it works in their favor, and irrelevant when it doesn’t.
BTW, this article is from a fashion magazine. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t get my political news from Refinery29.
Take off the blinders.
Observe everything.
Funnily enough, I observe that the article mentions the Rohrabacher–Farr Amendment, which prohibits the Justice Department from spending federal funds to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. Which appears to be the best legal shield preventing Sessions from unilaterally violating states’ rights on this matter.
Granted, the RFA is a flimsy shield; it only applies to medical cannabis, not recreational use, and since it’s basically a rider attached to an omnibus spending bill, it needs to be renewed every year or else it no longer has force. I agree that having Jeff Sessions as A.G. is very disturbing and doesn’t bode well for the future of legal weed, but until he actually takes action, the only reasonable thing to do is wait and watch.
Yes, there were four communities in Ohio that voted to roll back city ordinances prohibiting marijuana (a symbolic act as the authorities can simply switch to charging under the state law), and I believe all four voted for Trump.
I’ve been saying for years that state initiatives to legalize marijuana are bad policy because of federal supremacy and the fact that a future administration could easily put all those “legal” purveyors and users of the stuff behind bars.
Good to see the rest of you are catching up.
His attourney general said he liked the KKK until he learned they were into pot. Even if it isn’t a priority for Trump, it’s probably a priority for Sessions.
De-facto nullification and civil disobedience has been a driver of American history since the beginning. State laws legalizing marijuana have impaired the federal government’s ability to enforce its destructive policies. Sessions will do nothing.
This doesn’t make sense at all. You think the states should protect people from future small-scale federal enforcement by engaging in current large-scale local enforcement? A handful of DEA agents might one day go out and arrest people, so it’s better to tell every single state and local officer to get them arrested now?
…Ooookay.
There’s some level of “the cat’s out of the bag” is some of these States … obviously the Feds can crack down and threaten to withhold money from a State if they don’t end their commercial growing licensing programs … but then we still have all the little growers, a few plants out back for personal use … and if the States are allowed to continue their medicinal programs then local police enforcement will be a nightmare … and expensive …
My local community effectively stopped enforcing marijuana laws ten years ago and focused their police’s efforts on heroin and meth … and there’s be a big drop in property crimes associated with heroin and meth addiction … it’ll be a tough sell to return to 1980’s felony enforcement of these marijuana laws … we’re much better off, and generally safer, with marijuana being legal … and prices have crashed, fairly good grade medicinal marijuana can be had for $50 to $100 an oz … not enough profit for the criminal operations …
We shall see … once the prisons are full of Muslims and Mexicans there may not be room for the potheads …
A DEA crackdown on state-legalized marijuana is very different from the average war on drugs hassling of small time minority drug dealers. In the states that have legalized marijuana, the proprietors are largely white people, and increasingly well financed major local taxpayers.
The DEA doesn’t have the time or the resources to go after small fry, so if they’re involved, we’re talking about going after the legal-under-state-law players.
Now, it’s possible that they will still do so, just to piss off and disrupt the liberal states that have legalized marijuana. But suggesting that it’s just a repeat of Nixon-era war on drugs rhetoric is overly simplistic.
With Trump this means nothing.